Miracle fruit, flavour tripping and a wig party

Miracle fruit. It's the latest craze to hit foodlovers' tables, if recent media coverage is anything to go by.

The reason for this interest? The berry, originally found in West Africa, contains miraculin, a molecule that disables the tastebuds that detect sourness. This alters the brain into thinking that sour or tart foods taste much sweeter. Lemons will apparently taste like lemonade and balsamic vinegar will taste like sweet syrup.

The unexpected alteration of flavours across a spectrum of different foods has led rise to "flavour tripping parties", particularly with the availabilty of miracle fruit tablets containing the active ingredient.

When Billy from A Table for Two received a packet of Miracle Frooties, he knew what he had to do: a flavour tripping party with Sydney food bloggers.



So an excited rabble descended on the home of Chocolatesuze, a group that included A Table for Two, Citrus & Candy, Eat Show & Tell, Here Comes the Food, Hungry Digital Elf, One Bite More, The ♥ of food and me.

And the wig? Oh yes, there was only one entry condition. Wigs must be worn. What better to trip with. And yes, there are wig photos at the very end of this post.


Making roti

We started with lunch, a sensible decision to line our stomachs with food before the acid overload of tastetesting. As lunch preparations got under way, I was intrigued by the whole roti-making process, one that started with opening a packet of frozen roti (they were great), lightly panfrying on both sides, and then crimping the pastry with tongs to make it puff up slightly.

And yes, one pan was being particularly uncooperative and burning roti.


Roti canai by Chocolatesuze, Mrs Thye
and a very good brand of frozen roti
(EDIT: Katoomba brand, pictured and available here)

Oh the food. I love the happy mingling of dishes when everyone brings a plate. The standouts were Mrs Thye's curry (so tender and with just the right amount of heat) and her sticky glazed ribs. Simon's crispy fried prawn dumplings and scallops dumplings were also a hit, standing up well in the crunch factor despite being fried that morning and then warmed in the oven close to serving.


Sauteed mushrooms by Chocolatesuze


Glazed ribs by Mrs Thye (and reheated magnificently by Chocolatesuze)


Pumpkin, pear, bocconcini and pinenut salad by Chocolatesuze


Lentil salad by Shez


Sushi rolls by me


Crispy fried prawn dumplings and scallop dumplings by Simon


Chocolatesuze cosies up to some basil
(and if the pose looks familiar, yes, it was deliberate!)


Miracle Frooties



The food was so good, there was almost a reluctance to call an end to lunch and start the flavour tripping. Billy halved the tablets as directed (you can have half or whole) and pills were dispensed to everyone.


Dissolving a tablet on the tongue

The Miracle Frootie tablet itself is flavourless with a chalky texture. It quickly became apparent who naturally had more saliva in their mouths, as their tablets dissolved with speed. The rest of us, myself included, stood around for about five minutes trying in vain to speed up the process. And for those of you playing at home, the sour tastebud receptors are found on the sides of tongue all over the tongue, not just the sides as once believed (thanks for the tip, anon!).


Flavour tripping table

Finally, time for some flavour tripping!

We had no end of things to try, a whole table filled with types of foods, either salty or sour. Highlights included:

lemon - unanimously acknowledged as the group favourite, the lemons did taste like lemonade. There was a definite lemon flavour awash only with sweetness, like sucking on a fruit made of old -fashioned lemonade;

passionfruit pulp - had a strange gender divide when it came to taste. All the women reported it tasting strangely of chocolate sauce, whilst most of the men had little or no inkling of this (Yas excelled). I found it tasted like a cocoa sauce, not overly sweet or creamy, but somewhat bitter in a smooth way. The variation of people's tastes was fascinating in itself. Some people had better palates, and others seemed more affected by the miraculin;

strawberries, kiwifruit, limes, ruby red grapefruit and pomegranate - were all sweeter in taste, the strawberries and kiwifruit, in particular, heightened;

beer - tasted like coffee;

rice vinegar - had its acidity removed so it tasted like some form of liquer or spirit;

Fromage blanc (soft white cheese) - had a chalky blandness;

Yakult - took on a sweeter creaminess, turning into more of a smoothie than a yoghurt drink;

Warhead lollies - could be eaten without one's head blowing off, tasting more like sweet sherbet than cheek-twitching sourness; which leads me to

citric acid - the funniest one to try, tasting of sweet sherbet. Yas was especially enamoured and couldn't stop eating the stuff, only to realise too late that whilst the flavours of the foods change, their chemical properties don't. Too much acid in the stomach still makes one for unhappy camper.

The miraculin affects the tastebuds for 15-30 minutes.


Sour fruit platter

So much fun.

And then there was dessert. It seemed like everyone brought something. I wanted seconds of everything!

Simon's chocolate mousse was rich and sikly, Suze's peach slice had a delicious shortbread-style base, we adored the fresh strawberries and passionfruit inside the pavlova roulade bought by Yas, and waxed lyrical over Karen's lime brulee tart. My Coca-Cola cupcakes had extra fizz from the cola Wizz Fizz sprinkled on top, but the show-stopper had to be Billy's Domo-kun cake, the Japanese TV channel NHK mascot!


Dessert buffet


Adding cream to the chocolate mousse


Chocolate mousse by Simon


Peach slice by Chocolatesuze


Lime brulee tart by Karen


Pavlova bought by Yas from Sideways Deli Cafe


Coca-Cola cupcakes by me


Domo-kun cake by Billy

Thank you Billy for sharing your Miracle Frooties, Suze for being such a great host, Mrs Thye for her outstanding cooking contributions, and fellow food bloggers for being such good company!





EDIT 13/05/09: Due to popular demand (haha), a pic of me in wig now included above.

Image courtesy of A Table For Two: check out his post here

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